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Sunday, 31 August 2014

Valley Press Friday Digest, #18 (Sunday edition)

Despite appearances, this blog is not just here as a source of one-way Valley Press propaganda - I do occasionally drop in some hints of the larger struggle, and of course you can tell how things are really going by reading between the lines. If the post appears on Friday (as billed), full of good news, that's because I've had a good and relatively easy week; if it appears on Saturday, with very little substance to it, it's been an overly busy and boring week. This post is going up on Sunday afternoon, and was, at one point, full of hand-wringing and woe-is-me rhetoric. It has been a difficult week.

That being said, there have been a couple of bits of good news - one I've agreed not to tell you about, and the other you have probably already heard: the arrival of the new Dead Snail Diaries from The Emma Press. She's done a spectacular job, as hoped; the physical object is a beautiful and intriguing bit of work, and definitely worth £8.50 of your money. Huge thanks are due to Emma and Rachel for their top-notch efforts on both art and text.

I took a few minutes on Friday, when the books arrived, to think how I had suddenly attained the status of 'legitimately published author' - to consider what a strange road it has been from writing the snail poems in 2009 to their appearance in this new volume, and try to imagine how pleased 2009-era Jamie would have been to see it.

I've not perhaps been able to appreciate it as much as I should, as the rest of the week has been such a horror - blighted with all sorts, including illness and a lack of phone signal/internet connection. This whole month has been one I'd like to erase from history, or perhaps go back to the 1st August and have another go at; I have, quite simply, achieved nothing. But it is unquestionably over now; tomorrow is September, and we've got the Poetry Book Fair to look forward to on the 6th. Onwards and upwards!